Genetic Classification of Brassica Crops

Abstract

LAST May we were asked by Messrs. Carter whether there was any danger of intercrossing between kales and swedes. No precise information was available and classification by morphology offered little help for, as Bailey¹ remarks, the “Brassica group is indeed perplexing, excepting Rubus the most bewildering I have attempted”. Indeed, in Brassica, we find it less confusing to use the English rather than the Latin names. To add to the confusion the kale concerned, Hungry Gap, was itself reputed to be a cross between widely different types. Therefore, we examined as many types of kale as we could obtain to find whether the chromosome number would throw any light on the situation.